What's good to revive?

Okay need your expert help with this. My 1037 is looking like it's on death's doorstep & I'm really trying hard to save it. What do you use to help revive sick hibiscus?? Is there something that I can buy to give it a boost?

First can you tell us a little more about the conditions that it's been in that have led up to it being "on death's door"? Hibbies can be a bit temperamental if you change their conditions, they'll often lose leaves and generally look sad for a little while. So especially if you've brought it inside for the winter, it may not be in conditions that make it totally happy, but as soon as you put it back outside in the spring time you may find it resurrects itself all on its own. There are some things you can try--Messenger is one, and there's something that HVH has on their website that's supposed to help them wake up in spring, but I'd hold off on either one of those until it's spring and it's ready to grow again and you can give it conditions that will make it happy. In the meantime, the best thing you can do for it is make sure you're not overwatering it.

Hi There, Unfortunately it along with Voodoo Queen, & Moonlight Madness were really affected when we had the ice storm in Dec - we lost power & heat for 5 days in frigid temps - I unfortunately watered it generously before the storm hit so it stayed in the cold temps (house was 45 degrees) by the doorway. I did transplant them doing the bleach solution, I recently did the "scratch test" and there's still some green but all the leaves have fallen and no new growth. I know I can get another VQ & MM but 1037 was the last that Matt had & he's not growing any more - so I'd like to do whatever necessary to save it. Btw - I'm new to this - what's Messanger?

This is a simple explanation. There have been many threads on DG over the years on Messenger.

http://www.walterreeves.com/tools_chemicals/article.phtml?cat=22&id=916

Another product that might help is called SuperThrive. I often use it to revive plants.

Is the plant getting lots of light right now? If it is not getting enough natural light I would put it under a bright light for at least 10 hours a day. I have a couple under a floor lamp (the kind where the bulb hangs down) with an energy saving flood light bulb in it.

Good luck

I really don't think your plants are dead, I think they're just a little unhappy from the cold. I had a couple hibiscus in the years before I had my greenhouse, so they would spend the winter outside on a somewhat protected patio. Temps would get down to 35-40 overnight pretty much every night from November or so until Feb/March, and they always lost their leaves but then they always came back in the spring. So I really think they're just doing what they naturally would do when exposed to cold temperatures.

Messenger needs to be absorbed through the leaves, so I don't think it'll do you much good until the plants leaf out in the spring. Superthrive could help, it's always good for helping newly transplanted things establish their roots quicker. But don't panic if none of this works yet, it will take them a little while to recover from the stress of the cold weather (the winters that mine spent outside, they were generally pretty slow to get moving in the spring, so don't panic if it takes yours a while to revive themselves)

Ultimateshopper, try over at the HVH site www.hiddenvalleyhibiscus.com They sell a product called Synergy that Cindy just swears by. I bought some but haven't tried it yet. She suggested that I do a combination fertilizer/Synergy program until my plants look a little better (they went through a fire/wind, then moving trauma and some are currently not in the greatest shape)...I was going to start the program this week, but my mom took a nasty fall and got pretty messed up (broken bones & stitches) and is staying with me for about a week - we've been at different Dr.s every day :-( So between my mom, and me having been in the hospital last week myself, we're just a mess here right now...

HVH has a whole write-up on how Synergy works. Also, if you want additional information, just send them an email and Charles or Cindy will answer you pretty quick. Let them know you're from DG. They're really helpful over there and have had tremendous luck with this product.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!!

karen

Ecrane, ardesia, Karen - thanks for the advise - I'll send Cindy/Charles an e-mail about the synergy. I hav'nt seen or heard of SuperThrive - do you order that online or store? Karen I'm so sorry to hear about your mom & you - sounds like you've been going thru a pretty rough time - hope your mom heals and feel well quickly - I hope you are feeling okay now too! Thanks guys for the quick reply. I have 1037 in the sunniest window of the house (stays pretty warm & gets light all day long) maybe I'm being too anxious! I'll let you guys know what happens.

Here you can find Superthrive at local nurseries. But you can buy it online too...I've never had to buy it online so I don't remember where exactly I've seen it, but I know it's out there!

Wal-mart sells it here for $7.95 per small bottle as well as lowes etc but it is higher there.

I'm on my way to Wal-mart or Lowes within the hour!

I just checked on 1037 (scratch test) and unfortunately it's not looking good - I think it's a gonner. It's brownish green & I've cut the wood back to about an inch above soil level & it's definately looking dead. Strange though I looked at the roots an the outer roots are soggy looking but the middle roots are still white - perhaps it just hasn't turned yet? I'm now on a quest to find a 1037 cutting - I bought that one from Matt and it was the last one - he doesn't intend to cultivate anymore. I contacted Richard (Tahiti) and he lost his a while back too!! I could cry - it was definatley one of my favs! I think my efforts were too late in the game!

Oh I should clarify 1037 is actually Ten Thirtyseven so I should have put it down as 10-37. Any leads to obtaining this beauty would be greatly appreciated

When you say the outer roots look soggy, do you mean it looks like they're rotting from overwatering? If so, then I'd trim off any that look damaged, give the healthy looking roots a good swish through some hydrogen peroxide or chamomile tea, then repot in some clean soil. If you're putting it back in the same pot, I'd give the pot a thorough cleaning with bleach before you put the plant back in it. That should take care of any fungus that's hanging around. Then give it a bit of Superthrive to help the roots get going again. I wouldn't expect it to show any new top growth for a while, the roots need to get going again first, but there's a chance it could still recover. The thing I worry about though since you cut it back so severely is that it may no longer be the hibiscus you think it is--I know Matt grafts a lot of his plants, so if this one was grafted and you cut it back below the graft, any new growth you get is going to be whatever rootstock he uses.

Yikes ecrane - you're probably right - I'll try the hydrogen peroxide wash (what's the dilution rate - I know bleach is 1:10 water - but never used the hydro mix) & I'll trim. You are definately correct about the graft though - well it's worth a try anyway. Thanks for the advise! Ivana

If you have the 3% peroxide from the drugstore, I've seen some people say to use it straight, so either do that or dilute it a bit, but it's not near as strong as bleach so I don't think you have to worry about it nearly as much. And you could always email Matt and see if he remembers if that one was grafted or not--I know most if not all of the things he sells are grafted, but if that was one that he had around and wasn't going to be propagating anymore then there's a chance maybe it was on its own roots.

Ivana,
Hope all goes well for 10-37.
I've used Synergy many times, with wonderful results. It is very, very expensive, so I only use it on new transplants, or extremely stressful situations.

Do you have a picture of 10-37 in bloom? In case it doesn't make it, I wonder if there's not one out there that looks similar to it, if you post a pic maybe someone can suggest something to replace it that would look as close to it as possible?

Tess (who hasn't been around lately) has or had one. It is a beauty.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/622879/

I'm waiting with baited breath hoping that Matt will say he didn't graft 10-37 however I have a feeling that he did graft so what I'm trying to save will just be the graft donor. I wonder if I sent Tess a D-Mail if she would be able to send/sell me a cutting later on this summer? She has that it was 6" but mine gave me 8" blooms. And it was soooo beautiful - I got it early fall so the colors were vibrant.

Here's another picture of it